Farewell to HRM? Personnel practices in Japanese manufacturing plants in the UK

While Japanese manufacturing investment burgeoned in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s, its relative size remained small. Nevertheless, its impact was greater than its size. At its extreme it was championed by the 'new right' as the way forward for industrial practices, while manufacturing organizations in the UK were quick to attempt to emulate Japanese management practices. Core to these practices was the management of human resources. Coincidentally in the 1980s a new model of personnel management was being championed, namely human resource management (HRM). This was eagerly embraced by UK academics and was translated into two distinct forms, 'hard and soft'. Despite appearing mutually incompatible, the hard and soft forms were forged into a unified model. This paper, drawing on an empirical analysis of personnel practices in Japanese manufacturing plants in the UK, searches for a conjuncture between the HRM model and 'Japanese' models. It concludes that, while there are similarities between the two, there are also distinct differences. Moreover, where similarities exist they are with the hard variety of HRM.     

Thirty-two years of development of human resource management in China: Review and prospects

Focusing on the theoretical developments and practical applications of human resource management, this paper reviews the transition of human resource management in China from planned labor and personnel management to modern human resource management in three distinct time periods since China's reform and opening-up. Next the paper discusses the challenges of human resource management research and its practices from the perspectives of internationalization, corporate culture, and organizational innovation during China's economic transition. Finally, it presents the prospects and trends in the future development of human resource management in China.     

Human resource management practices in Nigeria: challenges and insights

This paper generated current knowledge on aspects of human resource management practices in Nigeria from a sample of 185 human resource management professionals employed in over ninety-six corporations located in three major cities in Nigeria. Furthermore, the convergence/divergence/cross-vergence perspective was utilized to provide theoretical insights on the human resource management practices. The findings support a cross-vergence perspective as evidenced by the blend of human resource management practices reflecting both generalized or standardized practices and localized practices. Implications and direction for further studies are discussed.     

Ownership nationality and industrial relations practices in British non-manufacturing industries

This article reports that foreign-owned plants in non-manufacturing in Britain display the same personnel management style as those in manufacturing with a greater commitment of resources to personnel management, more systemic labour deployment and higher pay levels than their British counterparts.     

HRM practice in emerging economies: a long way to go in the Slovak hotel industry?

Using empirical data from interviews among leading hotels in Slovakia, this paper sets out to explore recent developments in human resource management (HRM) policies and practices and labour relations in an emerging Central European economy. The main areas explored are the HRM function, employee resourcing, employee development, employee relations and emerging HRM issues. The paper establishes that there has been a move away from the traditional rigid socialist type of personnel management, but it has not been fully replaced by HRM practices. The emergent 'model' is a hybrid of the traditional Western personnel management and basic HRM activities, alongside which some legacies of the socialist personnel function still exist.     

Human resource management and business strategy links: an empirical study

Over recent years there has been an increasing interest in the field of human resource management. Currently, the literature encourages the consideration of human resources as strategic factors, not only because they play important role in strategy implementation, also because they are beginning to be reckoned as sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Relationships between human resource management and strategy have been studied from different perspectives. This article focuses on one of them. It examines matches between human resource practices and types of business strategy. The question addressed is: do human resource management practices vary with business strategy? To answer this question, empirical research was developed. Using data collected from 200 Spanish companies, this paper demonstrates significant associations between some human resource practices and business strategy in companies. Reported results support some of the previously established relationships. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Earnings-related unemployment benefits and unemployment

We show that a stronger earnings relationship of unemployment compensation reduces wages and increases employment in an economy in which wages are determined by a trade union that maximises the rent from unionisation. The opposite result applies for a utilitarian union. Using manufacturing and non-manufacturing data for 16 OECD countries, estimates suggest that a 10% increase in the earnings relationship is associated with a 1.9% fall in manufacturing wages, a 0.6% reduction in non-manufacturing wages and a 7.3% reduction in unemployment.     

A study of HRM and recruitment and selection policies and practices in Taiwan

In this paper, the authors present and discuss the findings of a survey of human resource management (HRM) and recruitment and selection policies and practices in a sample of manufacturing industry in Taiwan. The results indicate that there is a general desire among HR professionals in participant companies that HRM policies are integrated with corporate strategy and that HRM should be involved in decision making at board level. Evidence was also obtained that some HRM decisions are shared between line management and HR specialists and that line managers had a particularly influential role in decisions regarding recruitment and selection, training and development, and workforce expansion/reduction. There was also some evidence supporting an assertion that certain recruitment and selection practices were culturally sensitive and this was supported by evidence of association between recruitment and selection practices and country of ownership.     

Fostering and facilitating entrepreneurship in organizations: Implications for organization structure and human resource management practices

Two particularly important factors involved in successful corporate entrepreneurship are organization structure and human resource management practices. By selecting and implementing the appropriate structure and practices, human resource professionals can systematically foster and facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship within their organizations. The more that new and different entrepreneurial activities are needed, the more that complete structural arrangements as well as policy and procedure flexibility are needed. In this article, structural practices appropriate for different degrees of entrepreneurial activity are described. But because appropriate structural practices alone are not sufficient for effectiveness, necessary human resource management practices are also described in detail. Throughout, implications for structural and human resource management practices in advancing entrepreneurship are considered.     

Building from below: subsidiary management moderation of employment practices in MNCs in China

The international human resource management literature has a long tradition of examining the impact of institutional differences on the employment practices adopted by multinational corporations (MNCs). The question of how actors make sense of institutional differences, however, has received less research attention. This study examines the enactment of employment practices as institutional differences are translated, contextualized and deployed by managers at subsidiaries of MNCs. Based on intensive case studies at two Japanese–Chinese joint-venture manufacturing plants, the study first shows that distinctive employment practices were adopted to manage the boundaries between employee groups. These distinctions are then explained by the institutional difference between the home country (Japan) and the host country (China) as well as the way that institutional differences were represented by the managers in the process of designing, developing and executing employment practices. The study therefore argues that country differences are not only assumed spaces, but are also a reservoir of management resources that are moderated, in the case of employment practices, by actors’ strategic choices and political actions before they are enacted in the subsidiary.     

How effective human resource management promotes corporate entrepreneurship: evidence from China

Strategic human resource management (SHRM) represents a set of HRM practices that are aligned with firm strategies. The relationship between SHRM and organizational performance has been extensively examined; however, whether and how SHRM influences corporate entrepreneurship remains unknown. Based on the resource-based perspective, this study examined a model linking SHRM with corporate entrepreneurship. The importance of HRM people's political skill for a firm's development of devolved management through SHRM implementation was also examined. Data from a survey of 201 Chinese manufacturing firms confirm a significant relationship between SHRM and corporate entrepreneurship and that the relationship is partially mediated by a devolved management style. The relationship between SHRM and devolved management was shown to be stronger for firms with more politically skillful HRM people.     

Changes in HRM and job satisfaction, 1998–2004: evidence from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey

This paper examines the relationship between human resource management practices and job satisfaction, drawing on data from the 1998 and 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Surveys. The paper finds significant increases in satisfaction with the sense of achievement from work between 1998 and 2004; a number of other measures of job quality are found to have increased over this period as well. It also finds a decline in the incidence of many formal human resource management practices. The paper reports a weak association between formal human resource management practices and satisfaction with sense of achievement. Improvements in perceptions of job security, the climate of employment relations and managerial responsiveness are the most important factors in explaining the rise in satisfaction with sense of achievement between 1998 and 2004. We infer that the rise in satisfaction with sense of achievement is due in large part to the existence of falling unemployment during the period under study, which has driven employers to make improvements in the quality of work.     

The integration of human resource and operation management practices and its link with performance: A longitudinal latent class study

This paper reviews the literature on the association between lean production and performance. From this, propositions on the integration and evolution of operation and human resource management practices associated with the lean production concept are developed. Using 24 years of data on the use of seven core OM and HRM practices in British manufacturing firms, the potential link between integration in the use of practices and productivity is tested. In each year, three latent clusters are identified via ordered restricted latent class models; the cluster that consistently makes a more integrated use of practices outperforms the others. Furthermore, the longitudinal nature of the data permits modeling the growth curves of each practice in the sample, recognizing any similarity in growth and investigating whether or not an early integration in adoption of practices is associated with higher final productivity. The results show that pioneers are more productive, thus suggesting that the head start in integrating core OM and HRM practices associated with the lean production concept has paid off.     

The impact of human resource management practices and corporate entrepreneurship on firm performance: evidence from Turkish firms

This paper outlines the important role of human resource management practices with a link between corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance. Data were collected from a survey of 124 firms operating in different industries in Turkey. The findings of this study indicated that human resource management (HRM) practices partially mediated the relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance. In other words, corporate entrepreneurship affects firm performance, both directly and through its effects on HRM practices. In addition to corporate entrepreneurship, it is found that HRM practices explain a significant level of additional variance (9 per cent) in firm performance. The theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

THE STATUS RANKING OF INDUSTRIES

This paper is concerned to establish the status ranking of ten different sectors of manufacturing and non-manufacturing industry through analysis of the background and education of managers in these sectors. The ranking is then given confirmation by salary data. It is suggested that this ranking is based on differences between industries in science and technology, with corresponding differences in knowledge and skill needs and thus in the meaning of ‘management’, in sources of managerial recruitment, and in qualifications and requirements for education and training.     

Integrating human resource management and corporate strategy: A preview of the 3M story

This article describes the initial stages of an endeavor to bring about an integration of strategic management and human resource management in a major manufacturing organization—3M. The focus is on the agenda of the organization's Vice President of Human Resources for bringing about the innovation through a systematic program of cultural analysis, professional development of line managers and human resource specialists, restructuring of the human resource management organization, and creation of a new partnership between line and human resource managers.     

Human resource diversity management practices in the Australian manufacturing sector

We examined employee perceptions of the benefits and challenges of workforce diversity and human resource (HR) diversity management practices adopted in the Australian manufacturing sector. We found that overt discrimination does not exist in the Australian manufacturing sector. However, Australian employers appear to adopt a ‘legalistic compliance approach’ and have not considered workforce diversity as a source of competitive advantage. Employers have not adopted effective HR diversity management practices. The Australian manufacturing sector has failed to value diversity or capitalize on the benefits of workforce diversity. Inadequate recognition of overseas skills, ineffective communication, increased training costs and social isolation were perceived as the main challenges, whereas a stronger work ethic among multicultural employees, greater opportunities to learn from other cultures, lower absenteeism and less labor turnover were regarded as major benefits of workforce diversity. Overall, we found migrant workers are disadvantaged in the Australian workplace.     

Human and organizational capital: typologies among Spanish firms

This paper uses survey data on 965 Spanish manufacturing firms to examine the implementation of innovative management practices and the relationship of this with the organization of work and human resource management. The paper takes into account transformations in technology, quality management and the organization of work. Using cluster analysis, we identify the different paths that firms are following in order to improve their performance, finding that simultaneous transformations in several dimensions lead to greater success than partial transformation, or none at all.     

Hiring Managers in the Manufacturing Industry of Malaysia

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the staffing practices of managerial positions among manufacturing companies in Malaysia. The results are based on responses from 68 hiring managers. A person needs to have at least three years of orking experience before the person can be selected for a middle-level managerial position. Sources for recruiting 60% of the managerial positions are determined by the human resource managers. The top management had the final say in hiring 69% of the managers. Media advertisement is the most highly utilized source to recruit managers. Testing is seldom used to choose managers.